Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

We all have learned about Pearl Harbor in History class, 75 years ago on a Sunday morning, December 7th 1941. As the President said, " A day that will live in infamy".

That was the day that the United States Army and Navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by the Japanese Imperial Navy.

Over 2 thousand American souls were lost, another one thousand injured. This was the moment in time that brought America into World War 2.

My husband, David Andrews and I were lucky enough to have a chance to visit Pearl Harbor several years ago. Several images stuck with me.....how small of an area that was where so much death and destruction took place and how oddly quiet and peaceful it was. Almost like being in a church, everyone was speaking in hushed tones. The smell of flowers was in the air, as people brought their Leis that were given to them when they arrived at the airport, they pulled the flowers off the string and tossed them into the waters of the harbor. We took a short boat ride out to the Arizona where many of our Soldiers who lost their lives remain entombed below the monument built over the ships wreckage. Being on the Arizona monument is a very odd feeling, you see the names of those we lost, and ages....they were so young...yet it's almost like they are there in spirit. Others felt the same, the only speaking you heard was whispers, and below us in the water oil from the Arizona leaked to the surface.

Tonight PBS will be running a couple of specials....Pearl Harbor - USS Oklahoma, The Final Story. This is at 8pm, and followed by Pearl Harbor: Into the Arizona.

75 Years later, Pearl Harbor and the attack there remains a Day That Will Live In Infamy.